As Pickerington and the surrounding area welcome many new residents and families, a new medical facility offering emergency care couldn’t come soon enough.
Understanding that the demand for on-site emergency service was far beyond supply, local care – by and for Pickerington area residents – is the mission of Pickerington’s new cutting-edge facility through OhioHealth.
“We knew early on when we opened the medical campus in Pickerington in 2015 that Pickerington was ready to have a large-scale healthcare facility in their name,” says Kevin Lutz, DPM, president of Pickerington Methodist Hospital. “We quickly saw the emergency department associated with Pickerington Medical’s campus grow quickly and it quickly became (OhioHealth’s) busiest freestanding emergency department in our facilities within central Ohio.”
Good health from the ground up
The City of Pickerington is thrilled to have OhioHealth as a partner and worked closely with the organization to ensure a steady construction and opening of the new facility.
“Having a hospital in the community adds an immense amount of value to our residents,” Mayor Lee Gray says. “When a health crisis arises, people no longer have to drive 15-20 minutes to a hospital, they can get there in five.”
The construction of Pickerington Methodist Hospital became a rare instance of pandemic-related delays benefitting the final product. Initial planning took place in 2019, and after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed construction, OhioHealth decided to expand the facility’s offerings.
The changes included adding a sixth floor and filling it with extra beds, as well as adding a cardiac catheterization lab for intervention when patients suffer a cardiac incident. Pickerington local Mohamed Ahmed, M.D., a cardiologist at Pickerington Methodist, says the resources it will offer patients with heart conditions, as well as the close proximity, can save lives.
“You have someone who has chest pain, you have to do heart catheterization, you need to fix a heart attack problem, minutes definitely matter as far as the overall outcome,” he says.
During the planning stages, OhioHealth specifically targeted areas of need within the community so that Pickerington Methodist can offer the appropriate on-site care for most patients.
Stephen Webster/ OhioHealth OhioHealth
“So, an acute care hospital with cardiac care like this, (they) also have trauma care, labor and delivery, stroke, general medicine and general surgery, it’s also a cancer infusion center,” Ahmed says. “We understand cancer care can be very annoying and daunting and you need something like this – local for those patients who are unfortunate in general to have this diagnosis, so you don’t want to put them through travels.”
Friendly neighborhood care
Before the opening of this facility, OhioHealth was keenly aware members of its staff were traveling from Pickerington to its different campuses, and it wants to be sure that locals make up much of the staff in this facility.
“OhioHealth is now our largest non-government employer,” says Mayor Gray. “Employees won’t have to travel as far for work – they can live and work right here in Pickerington. And with the hospital as an anchor, we now have other businesses looking to locate here and that adds to the excitement that OhioHealth has created.”
The staff shares a commitment to the community, and it shows in the way they go the extra mile for patients.
“Nobody looks forward to going to the hospital, right? I keep telling patients, I’m sorry to meet you like this in the hospital, but if you have to be hospitalized anywhere, we have a brand new, beautiful hospital that we’re super proud of,” says Dr. Kelsey Lee, an internal medicine hospitalist at OhioHealth. “Every patient I’ve talked to, really, they’re like ‘everybody’s been so nice, everyone’s happy.’ (It helps) being able to live and work this close and still be able to work for OhioHealth. So having happy staff also impacts the patients.”
Not only do positive attitudes create a better experience for patients, but knowing that the staff is made up of their neighbors helps build trust and accountability.
Stephen Webster/ OhioHealth OhioHealth
“If you have a (patient) and you talk to them about local things that happened … I think that makes them like you more and that translates into better patients’ care because they are now going to take the medications that you prescribe and they’re going to be kept out of the hospital,” Ahmed says.
Starting strong
The opening was an exciting occasion for everyone involved in constructing the hospital.
“We had all kinds of firsts, as you can imagine, with the new hospital. It was so exciting on day one when we delivered a baby,” Lutz says. “I can’t even tell you what it meant to me because it was the culmination of multiple years of work and it was as simple as hearing the chimes overhead on the loudspeaker.”
OhioHealth staff is committed to making a good impression on every patient who passes through, and the city and its residents are glad to have them.
Given that the needs of the community were the top priority when selecting the facility’s offerings, it’s no surprise that the hospital was busy from the jump.
“Our biggest challenge on day one was we ran out of parking,” Lutz says. “I think that was a clear indicator that the community was ready to embrace us as a hospital so we have rushed to construct two additional parking lots.”
Where there were once doubters that the facility would ever fill to capacity, many are now anticipating expansions of Pickerington Methodist Hospital and its services.
Stephen Webster/ OhioHealth OhioHealth
“It proved everyone wrong because it was full. … So it tells you there was definitely an unmet need,” Ahmed says. “The way I see it in the future I think this will be a large campus. … I think it will take time but I think eventually we’ll get there because OhioHealth is a great organization, it’s very well run. They know the needs and they go after the needs and try to help the community.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
